Title 49—Transportation--Volume 1
PART 1220—PRESERVATION OF RECORDS
§ 1220.0   Applicability.
The preservation of record rules contained in this part shall apply to the following:
§ 1220.1   Records required to be retained.
Companies subject to this part shall retain records for the minimum retention periods required by § 1220.6, Schedule of records and periods of retention. After the required retention periods, the records may be destroyed at the discretion of each company's management. It shall be the obligation of the subject company to maintain records that adequately support financial and operational data required by the Board. The company may request a ruling from the Board on the retention of any record. The provisions of this part shall not be construed as excusing compliance with the lawful requirements of any other governmental body prescribing longer retention periods for any category of records.
§ 1220.2   Protection and storage of records.
(a) The company shall protect records subject to this part from fires, floods, and other hazards, and safeguard the records from unnecessary exposure to deterioration from excessive humidity, dryness, or lack of ventilation.
(b) The company shall notify the Board if prescribed records are substantially destroyed or damaged before the term of the prescribed retention periods.
§ 1220.3   Preservation of records.
(a) All records may be preserved by any technology that is immune to alteration, modification, or erasure of the underlying data and will enable production of an accurate and unaltered paper copy.
(b) Records not originally preserved on hard copy shall be accompanied by a statement executed by a person having personal knowledge of the facts indicating the type of data included within the records. One comprehensive statement may be executed in lieu of individual statements for multiple records if the type of data included in the multiple records is common to all such records. The records shall be indexed and retained in such a manner as will render them readily accessible. The company shall have facilities available to locate, identify and produce legible paper copies of the records.
(c) Any significant characteristic, feature or other attribute that a particular medium will not preserve shall be clearly indicated at the beginning of the applicable records as appropriate.
(d) The printed side of forms, such as instructions, need not be preserved for each record as long as the printed matter is common to all such forms and an identified specimen of the form is maintained on the medium for reference.
§ 1220.4   Companies going out of business.
The records referred to in these regulations may be destroyed after business is discontinued and the company is completely liquidated. The records may not be destroyed until dissolution is final and all pending transactions and claims are completed. When a company is merged with another company under jurisdiction of the Board, the successor company shall preserve records of the merged company in accordance with these regulations.
§ 1220.5   Waiver of requirements of these regulations.
A waiver from any provision of these regulations may be made by the Board upon its own initiative or upon submission of a written request by the company. Each request for waiver shall demonstrate that unusual circumstances warrant a departure from prescribed retention periods, procedures, or techniques, or that compliance with such prescribed requirements would impose an unreasonable burden on the company.
§ 1220.6   Schedule of records and periods of retention.
The following schedule shows periods that designated records shall be preserved. The descriptions specified under the various general headings are for convenient reference and identification, and are intended to apply to the items named regardless of what the records are called in individual companies and regardless of the record media. The retention periods represent the prescribed number of years from the date of the document and not calendar years. Records not listed below shall be retained as determined by the management of each company.
Schedule of Records and Periods of Retention
Note A: Records referenced to this note shall be maintained as determined by the designated records supervisory official. Companies should be mindful of the record retention requirements of the Internal Revenue Service, Securities and Exchange Commission, state and local jurisdictions and other regulatory agencies. Companies shall exercise reasonable care in choosing retention periods, and the choice of retention periods shall reflect past experiences, company needs, pending litigation, and regulatory requirements.